


Cuts and Bruises

by whatwiththeegobangandsuch



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Blood, Bruises, Crossdressing, Fights, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Injuries, Physical Harm, Starlight au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 20:26:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8116357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatwiththeegobangandsuch/pseuds/whatwiththeegobangandsuch
Summary: Arin gets in a fight with a bunch of dudes for calling him a girl. He manages to stumble home. Dan is able to patch him up, he is going to make sure that those guys pay for what they did to Arin.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SweetieFiend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetieFiend/gifts).



> Sweetiefiend wanted sad Arin and basically gave me this prompt. Something about it made my creative juices flow and now here we are. 
> 
> It's, yet again, set in her Starlight universe, because I can't stop. :3
> 
> I'm so sorry.

Dan heard a few pounding knocks on the door to his apartment. He rushed to door and looked through the peephole. He saw Arin slumped against the wall by the door with his head down. Something was wrong. 

He opened the door as fast as he could. Arin nearly fell in the door when it opened. Dan reached out his arms to catch him, but Arin steadied himself, bracing against the doorframe. Dan put an arm around Arin’s waist to help him into the apartment and onto the couch. 

Dan rushed to the bathroom to grab the first aid kit and a couple damp towels. When he got back, he was able to get his first good look at Arin and his injuries. 

Arin looked rough. One of the straps of his dress was ripped off his shoulder and there was a big tear in the skirt. The knees of his tights had a large hole in them and there was blood covering the exposed skin, crusting in the hosiery around the wound. 

Arin’s nose was bleeding badly. One of his eyes was swelling and beginning to bruise. There was several cuts on his cheeks and lips, as well as scrapes and scratches on his hands and elbows. He had been beaten up, badly. 

“Arin, what the hell happened to you?” Dan asked, opening the first aid kit and pulling bandages and antibacterial cream out of it.

“So you have a first aid kit, but we have to borrow Suzy’s thermometer when either of us have a fever?” Arin said, watching Dan carefully. Dan made a face at him. 

“You’re dodging the question.” Arin looked down at his scraped, dirty, and bloody palms, not really wanting to look Dan in the eyes. 

“It was nothing. It was my fault anyway,” Arin replied as he tried to shake off Dan who was now trying to attend to the wounds on his face. 

“Arin.” Dan looked him straight in the eyes. “Tell me. Please?” Arin sighed.

“This dude was just calling me a girl. I mean I guess I understand why and like you know, I don’t usually let it bother me. But there was just something about how this asshole was saying it. I just wanted to show him how much of a man I really am. It wouldn’t have been a problem and I would have been able to take him, if his two friends hadn’t showed up and started helping him.”

Dan’s hands were shaking. He was so angry. He wanted nothing more than to leave now and go find the guys responsible for this. To make them pay for what they did to Arin.

“Who are they? What did they look like?” Dan spoke fast, his adrenaline flooding his veins and making it hard for him to think about anything but hurting those guys.

“They were just some dudes. I dunn--”

“Where did they beat you up?” Dan didn’t mean to cut Arin off, but he needed answers.

“Like a block away from here. Dan, listen. Don’t go after them. I don’t know where they went and I wouldn’t even begin to know where to look for them. Besides, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be fine. Just leave it.”

“But, Arin. They hurt you.” Dan’s voice was surprisingly soft now. 

“Whatever. It’s not the first time I’ve been beat up for wearing this stuff.” Arin pulled at the hem of his dress. He winced and looked down at his hand, still bloodstained and covered in dirt. “I just want to get cleaned up and rest for a while.”

Dan went to the kitchen and retrieved a bowl of ice cubes and wrapped a few of them in a towel for Arin to put against his eye. When he returned, he sighed and grabbed one of the damp rags and tried cleaning up some of the wounds. There were so many, he almost didn’t know where to start. He decided to start with his hands. He gently cleaned the grime and already dried blood off of one while Arin held the ice to his black eye with the other. 

The thought of Arin being hurt like this before just made Dan sad. How many times had this happened to him? How badly had he been beaten before?

When Dan had cleaned and bandaged both of Arin’s hands, he decided to move to the cuts on his face. He had a pretty bad gash in his bottom lip and a few on his cheek.

“Do you think we should take you to the hospital?”

“I really don’t feel like sitting in a waiting room for hours to clean up a few cuts,” Arin said, sounding exhausted. “No, we can do it all here. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay. Do you think you can stand to take off your dress and tights?” Arin nodded weakly and tried to stand, holding onto Dan’s hands to stabilize himself. He lost his balance as he was stepping out of his tights and fell back onto the couch with a wince and a loud, drawn out groan. He clutched at his ribs and abdomen. The fall had awoken pain there that he had nearly forgotten about while he had been sitting still. 

“Oh, Arin. I’m so sorry,” Dan said quickly as he tried to get Arin comfortable on the couch again. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m… I’m fine,” Arin said between quick panting breaths, trying to recover from the sudden burst of pain. He rubbed gingerly at his ribs and stomach. 

“Are your ribs hurt?” 

“Yeah kind of. I think they kicked me. After they pushed me down on the ground.”

“Can I take a look?” Arin nodded again. “Okay. Um.. Can you lift your arm maybe? I think I can get your dress off without making you stand again.” Arin nodded again and held out his arm, helping Dan pull the dress over his head. Dan gasped when he saw Arin’s torso. There were large, dark purple and black bruises already beginning to form all over his chest, abdomen, and back. 

“Oh, Arin.” Dan almost couldn’t believe his eyes. The bruises covering Arin’s body looked incredibly painful. He luckily didn’t see any cuts or scrapes on any of the skin there. He knelt in front of Arin and tried to finish removing Arin’s tights. There was a large patch of skin that was covered in blood. Dan slowly peeled the tights away from Arin’s leg. The already drying blood sticking the fabric to his leg like glue. 

Dan grabbed one of the damp towels and began trying to clean what could be considered the worst of Arin’s injuries. He cleaned as much of the dirt and grime from around the wound with the towel and started to clean the inside of it. 

“Dammit,” Dan cursed as he dug through the first aid kit looking for something. 

“What’s the matter?” Arin asked. 

“I can’t find the hydrogen peroxide. All I have in here is rubbing alcohol.”

“Would it be anywhere else?”

“Don’t think so. I’ll check in the bathroom, but I don’t think it would be in there. If we still have some, it’d be in here.” Dan went to check in the bathroom for the dark bottle of peroxide, coming back empty handed. “I couldn’t find any.” Dan made a face. “R-rubbing alcohol will work, but…”

“But what?”

“But... but it’ll hurt like a bitch.”

“Go ahead,” Arin said, nodding.

“You’re sure?” Arin nodded again, starting to brace himself.

“Better than getting a bad infection because we couldn’t clean it out.”

“Okay,” Dan said solemnly. He uncapped the bottle and held out his hand for Arin to hold before beginning to pour the liquid over his knee. “Ready?” Dan asked, waiting for a confirmation from Arin before he started pouring. Arin nodded once again, his eyes shut tight. “Okay. Here we go.” 

Dan poured the alcohol and almost as soon as it touched his skin, the grip on Dan’s hand tightened. Arin let out a loud moan. He nearly screamed before Dan stopped pouring.

“It’s okay. It’s done,” Dan said, leaning up to hold Arin’s face in his hand. “I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry, baby. It’s done. That’s the last of that, I promise. I might have to dig some of the dirt out of it still, but I won’t have to pour the alcohol on it anymore.”

Arin let out a small sob. He didn’t think he had been in this much pain in his life. Between the bruises on his torso, all the scrapes and scratches, and the new pain in his knee, it was too much. He let the tears fall. He didn’t care.

Dan carefully sat next to Arin on the couch. He wrapped his arms around him and held him close. Arin nestled his face into Dan’s neck and he stayed there. He didn’t mean to, but he let all of the emotions he was feeling out, right into Dan’s shoulder. Dan honestly didn’t care. He just wanted Arin to be okay. 

“I’m… I’m sorry, Dan,” Arin said after a long while. 

“There’s no need to be sorry, babygirl,” Dan said, kissing Arin on the top of his head. “Those guys, though. They’re gonna be sorry.” Arin picked his head up and looked into Dan’s face.

“Dan…” Arin trailed off. 

“Arin,” Dan said, placing a hand gingerly on Arin’s cheek. “No one messes with my babygirl.”

Arin returned his head to Dan’s shoulder and they stayed that way for a long time. Eventually, Arin’s tears ran out and he was able to calm down, but Dan still held him. 

“Do you think you might want to move to the bed and lie down?” Dan asked softly. 

“I think so.” Arin’s voice was weak. He sounded exhausted.

Dan finished bandaging Arin’s cuts, being especially careful not to hurt his knee even more than it already was.

“Do you think you might be able to stand this time, babygirl?” Arin nodded. 

“I think so. Will you hang onto me though?”

“Of course.” Dan stood in front of Arin and helped him stand. He wrapped his arm around Arin’s middle again and helped him to the bed. “Comfortable?” he asked once Arin was laid down and settled in.

“Dan?”

“Yes, Ar?”

“Will you stay with me?”

“Of course I will.” Dan carefully crawled into the bed next to Arin, pulling him close to him again. Arin rested his head on his chest right over Dan’s heart and quickly fell asleep.

Dan, however, wouldn’t be able to sleep even if he wanted to. He was sick over the fact that someone would want to do this to Arin. He didn’t know how, but he was going to find them. He was going to make them pay.

He laid there for hours, Arin resting on his chest, plotting what he would do the those dudes if he ever ran into them. He was going to avenge Arin, even if he didn’t really want Dan to do it. 

~~~

It had been weeks since Arin had gotten beaten up. He was pretty much fully healed. Just a few still healing scars left. 

Arin and Suzy were hanging out at the club that Dan worked at, sitting at the bar, just chatting with him, sipping their drinks. It was a fairly slow night and there weren’t very many people there besides them. 

A small group of guys walked in, chatting loudly, joking and pushing each other around. Arin glanced at them as they walked it and immediately froze up. He whipped back around and tried to hide his face without Dan or Suzy really noticing that he was doing so.

He was quiet for a while, Suzy still chatting away with Dan, before Dan noticed that Arin hadn’t said anything in several minutes. 

“Arin? You alright?” Dan asked. Arin had his head down, playing with the ice in his cup.

“Yeah I’m fine. It’s nothing,” Arin mumbled. Dan glanced around the club and spotted the group of guys. 

“Are tho-- Are those the guys who beat you up, Arin?” Dan asked, his blood starting to boil.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. “ Arin still kept his head down, not looking at Dan. 

“No. This needs to be taken care of.” Dan stomped around to the other side of the bar and started approaching the group of guys. Arin rushed to try to pull him back and stop him. 

“Dan, stop!” Arin whipped Dan around and held his shoulders making him look at him. “It’s not important.”

“But, Arin, they hurt you.” Dan’s voice cracked. He seemed almost like he might start tearing up.

The guys looked around, hearing Arin’s yell. One of the guys seemed to recognize Arin and hit one of the other guys on the arm, getting his attention, and gestured at Arin. They stood and began to approach the bar. 

“Hey!” one of the guys called out as they came closer. “Still wearing dresses, huh? Looks like our little lesson didn’t teach you anything.” Dan tensed up, his fists balling at his sides. 

“Get out of here,” Dan said, his teeth gritting. 

“Why? This your girlfriend?” One of the guys started getting into Dan’s face. He was about the same height as Dan, but much more burly than him. 

“I said, get out of here.” 

“What are you gonna do, skinny?” the guy said, shoving Dan’s chest. 

Dan pulled back his arm and punched the guy hard in the jaw. He was seething. Arin and Suzy could almost see steam pouring out of his ears. 

The guy was taken aback. He tried to approach Dan again, but Suzy jumped between them. 

“Hey! Hey! Knock it off! Break it up!” Suzy yelled. She pressed her hand against Dan’s chest, holding him back.

“GET OUT!” Dan screamed at the guy. “You and all your friends! You’re not welcome here. Get out of my bar or I will call the cops!”

The guys all left fairly unceremoniously, the guy's other friends pulling him out. When they were out of the building, Dan finally looked down at his hand, wincing as he flexed it. 

“Dan, are you alright?” Arin asked, gently grabbing his hand, making sure there was nothing broken. 

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You really didn’t have to do that.”

“They weren’t going to hurt you again. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.” Arin pulled Dan into a rib crushing hug. 

“Thank you, Dan. My handsome knight.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear what you think.  
> You can find me at @what-with-the-egobang-and-such on tumblr :3
> 
> Also go check out Starlight by SweetieFiend. It's absolutely incredible <3


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